Slashdot Mirror

Being a scientist more or less being involved in similar research ( http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/ ), I can only say that I would be really happy to create something that was even a little bit as creepy an AI as the one we have in the usual movies (Terminator etc.). Reality is that things like the 'Wizkid' or similar devices might be ok at conveying some crude intelligence through a smart choice of interactive features. However, in fact they are miles away from any kind of 'artificial intelligence' that might even remotely come close to outclassing a human (except in 'calculator' style intelligence of course).

More natural-looking (albeit slower) performance from the Wabian-2.

Swiveling hips are the way of the future. ^_^ Here is a demonstration video. (The giant mech shooting balls at people afterward is unrelated...)

Also check out the related robot Kiyomori. Because nothing says "We are here to protect you" like traditional armor and GLOWING EYES.

WABOT-2 could interpret human singers and organ players back in 1985. Hardly the first musical robot:

http://www.humanoid.waseda.ac.jp/booklet/kato02.ht ml

I found video of the V2 walker (today's demo was the V3) here:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/movie/stair_c.mpg

Hmmm, the rider looks a little nervous...

The video is from the university page at:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/index.htm

They are also working on a reactive foot for walking on uneven surfaces:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WS-1&1R/index.html

Very promising stuff. Hopefully the multiple linear actuators will make it somewhat fault tolerant. Now where's my Gundam?

I found video of the V2 walker (today's demo was the V3) here:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/movie/stair_c.mpg

Hmmm, the rider looks a little nervous...

The video is from the university page at:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/index.htm

They are also working on a reactive foot for walking on uneven surfaces:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WS-1&1R/index.html

Very promising stuff. Hopefully the multiple linear actuators will make it somewhat fault tolerant. Now where's my Gundam?

I found video of the V2 walker (today's demo was the V3) here:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/movie/stair_c.mpg

Hmmm, the rider looks a little nervous...

The video is from the university page at:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WL-16rr/index.htm

They are also working on a reactive foot for walking on uneven surfaces:
http://www.takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp/research/pa rallel/WS-1&1R/index.html

Very promising stuff. Hopefully the multiple linear actuators will make it somewhat fault tolerant. Now where's my Gundam?

• TOYOTA's Press Release
  
• TOYOTA PARTNER ROBOT Page(movie)
  
• Movie(WMP)
• Movie(Real)

Others Robotics sites

• TMSUK T-52(Movie)
• HAL(Hybrid Assistive Leg)
• Bipedal Locomotor WL-16

I think they have everyone fooled. Note the speakers and subwoofer at the bottom of the pic. ;) Why whould a flute playing robot need speakers?

Seriously though, this is very impressive. From the lung to the lips and mouth like piece that makes the air come out is if from a normal mouth, it's amazing. I'd like to hear how it sounds and I'd be interested in the software that was made to convert the midi notes into breath strength/time and the finger movements.

I'm guessing by "welfare" they really mean "healthcare." Looks like that quote comes from this page. That organization is Japanese and it's possible they don't quite understand the meaning of some English words. To some people for whom English is a foreign language, "welfare" sounds like "well fare" or the pursuit of making sick people well, so they assume "welfare" is the same as "healthcare." Basically, it's the internet being the meeting place of people from many cultures. Give them the benefit of doubt... Just a thought.

There are four major humanoid robot projects; (...), Waseba University,(...)

It's WaseDA University, for those looking for it, and it's called Wabian :-).It's quite a nice fellow, but now we're working on wabian 2 (which still has only torso and legs so far).

Claus

What were the utility of the two sealed copper handles we saw on the first door? The two copper handles were well centered on the door as viewed from within the shaft. They're clearly not for pulling since they were seen from under. Why a seals since there is another door behind? Maybe the copper handles and the seals were supposed to be seen from the other way around... leading to the Queen's chamber.

The builders put a great deal of effort on these shafts. They were not added a posteriori, as an after thought. They were part of the original design. But, as far as I remember, no other (previous or later) pyramids present these features (correct me if I am wrong). So if these shafts were necessary for the Egyptian mythology, why are they only in Khufu? If they were not important for the mythology, why putting such an effort on their construction? Maybe there were "sects" within the egyptian mythology - and Khufu's builders were not following the mainstream beliefs. Consider that Khufu's is the only 'suspended' burial chamber discovered; all others were dug below the ground or placed at ground level, with the rest of the pyramid built above them.

There are scientific evidences that there are more hidden chambers within the great pyramid. A team of japanese egyptologists conclude (in this report): For instance, the electromagnetic wave radar exploration system is capable of exploring the internal space and of detecting any foreign material within the stone structure by the abnormal reflections from inside the stonework using radar. Appling this method, fruitful results have so far been obtained, including some unusual radar reactions, which suggest the existence of some inner space at the locations as the north side of the Queen's Chamber within the pyramid, and the south side of the Great Pyramid and the north side of the Great Sphinx. I remember reading that the Japanese team estimated that over 3% of the pyramid is free space. A french team estimated the empty space being around 10%. I am trying to locate the references of these numbers - if you have hints... Anyway, this is a lot more that what we currently discovered.

for now... :-)

OK, sorry for the bogus link to the Nikkei English site - I didn't know that their registration policy requires a credit-card number (!), even for a free trial.
It seems that the only English article around at the moment is here at CNNfn; they have a reasonable summary of the situation, but it's slightly different in content from the Nikkei article, so for your edification, I've included my translation of the Japanese Nikkei piece. (My comments are in italics.)

OS development collaboration for digital home electronics
23 Japanese electronic and telecommunications companies, including Toshiba, Sony and NEC, in addition to two universities, including Waseda University, have reached a basic agreement on collaborative development of an OS for controlling digital home electronics, mobile phones, car navigation systems and other products. Utilizing the rapidly-spreading free (This is "free" as in "free beer") OS, Linux, the OS will be made available to the public to use freely (This "free" is "libre"), and is expected to contribute to lower product development cost. The group will also call for participation from overseas corporations in an effort to make the OS a global de facto standard. Microsoft currently controls the world market for PC-based operating systems, but the Japanese group will join together to create a common infrastructure for an OS for next-generation information devices, such as digital home electronics, which are anticipated to undergo rapid growth in the future.
A controlling organization, the Japan Embedded Linux Consortium, will be founded on the 13th of this month. Other than Toshiba, etc., Fujitsu, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric will also participate. In addition to software companies such as TurboLinux and Elmic Systems, Waseda University's engineering department (Waseda is one of the top two or three private universities in Japan) and the Toyohashi University of Technology will take part.

One nuance that doesn't come through well in translation is the bit where they say the OS will be freely available - an exaggerated interpretation would be something like "the consortium is planning to be so gracious as to make the OS freely available to the public", an interesting bit of spin considering that they would have to make at least the kernel, and quite possibly much of userland, available, thanks to the GPL.

One other important point is the absence of Matsushita (and thereby National/Panasonic and Aiwa) from the consortium, which foreshadows the possibility of yet another Beta/VHS war. One has to wonder what Matsushita are going to do in reply to this (I very much doubt that they would just ignore it).